814 
THE FUNGOID ORIGIN OF DISEASE, ETC. 
themselves anew, so as to produce living matter under the in- 
fluence of those physical forces which are concerned in 
bringing about the growth of a plant ; that the same forces 
can be made to combine by long boiling to reproduce life or 
reconstruct the disintegrated particles of dead matter, and 
convert them into higher organisms than had previously ex- 
isted. It seems to me impossible to attempt in this manner 
the settlement of a point of so much importance as that of 
the origin of life. And since we cannot undertake to say 
with anything like certainty that we have succeeded in de- 
stroying every living germ in any experiment we may insti- 
tute, then, 1 fear, the spontaneous generation hypothesis is 
hardly worthy of further serious consideration. But with 
regard to Dr. Sandersoff s investigations of certain contagious 
forms of disease, he produces positive evidence that nothing 
like bacteria or microzymes can be discovered in the blood of 
persons affected with scarlatina. This is an important and 
interesting fact, one very suggestive as to the cause of par- 
ticular forms of disease, and seeming to lead to the conclu- 
sion that contagious affections are produced by a putrefactive 
change, a contamination introduced from without into the 
circulation. 
From whatever stand-point we view the important ques- 
tion of contagion, or the origin of life, I am quite sure it will 
ultimately end in a gain to our scientific knowledge ; and as 
every additional contribution will I am sure be acceptable, I 
shall offer no apology for introducing a very interesting letter, 
written by Henry J. Carter, F.R.S., some four or five years 
ago, as a criticism on a paper of mine w hich appeared in the 
c Intellectual Observer/ “ On Phases in the Developmental 
History of Infusorial Life,” a great portion of which is quite 
pertinent to the question under review at this moment. 
“Budleigh Salterton, Devonshire; 
“March Uth, 1867. 
Cf My dear Sir, — I do not yet believe in spontaneous 
generation, nor will the theory, if ever substantiated, be so 
until a knowledge of the ultimate forms of the phenomena 
called ‘ litV is obtained ; while it seems to me that we are as 
far from this as from the ultimate atoms of matter. 
66 When we see, under the microscope, insect forms almost 
as small as the smallest animalcules, and know, from infer- 
ence, how complicated their structure must be; when we 
find their limbs as transparent as glass, and thus, apparently, 
as structureless, yet know that there is structure even in glass. 
